A development that should surprise no-one, and the obvious — to Hartford — solution.

Minimum wage hike from $10 to $15 per hour will cost municipalities $24 million annually.

Nonpartisan analysts released four projections on how the minimum wage hike would affect Connecticut’s 169 cities and towns.

Large cities, with populations greater than 100,000, would face $800,000 to $1 million in added costs.

Medium-sized cities with populations between 50,000 and 80,000 would face $400,000 to $600,000 in additional expenses.

Small cities with populations between 30,000 and 50,000 would face $100,000 to $300,000 in added costs.

Small towns with less than 20,000 people would face $50,000 or less in increased expenses.

A CT Mirror analysis using OFA’s cost estimates and population estimates from the state Office of Policy and Management found there will be an aggregate impact of the wage hike of up to $23.9 million. Connecticut has five large cities, 14 medium-sized cities, 36 small cities and 114 small towns.

All of the projections are based largely on mandated wage hikes. For example, a municipal employee earning $12 per hour would have to be paid $15.

And $6.9 for child care agencies, and, be assured, lots of other agencies that have yet to be accounted for. Plus, if you raise a worker’s pay from $10 to $15, do you think that workers [sic] now earning $15 will welcome the now-equal newcomers as their economic peers, or will they instead insist on their own wages to rise so as to maintain the difference? I’m only kidding about the first option.

…

“We have to look at this holistically,” said Sen. Julie Kushner, D-Danbury. “If we solve a problem here and create a problem there, that doesn’t work.”

Both Kushner and the committee’s other co-chairwoman, Rep. Robyn Porter, D-New Haven, said the legislature should consider raising more revenue to ensure a minimum wage hike doesn’t hurt groups in need.

Well they won’t find that new revenue among the poor, or in Bridgeport, or in Hartford’s slums. So where will they find it? One guess.

Democratic leaders of the Labor and Public Employees Committee said the new estimates demonstrate the need to boost funding for municipalities.

Even weak minds think alike.